Parents As Teachers

What Is Parents As Teachers?

A program of cooperative extension funded by Smart Start and provides guidance, education, and support.

Parents As Teachers guides families through the phases of parenting and strengthens the parent/child relationship.

Parents As Teachers educates parents by providing information and suggested activities to encourage growth and development.

Parents as Teachers supports parental decisions.

What does the current program offer?

The existing program offers parents personal home visits with a certified educator.

Parents As Teachers offers parents and children group meetings on a variety of child and parent related topics. Information is presented in a variety of ways to meet individual learning styles. Some group meetings are held with child activities to involve both parent and child in a similar topic and some group meetings are held with childcare provided so that more sensitive topics such as discipline can be discussed.

Screenings are completed on a regular basis to detect any possible developmental delays. A variety of screening materials are used, the most common being Ages and Stages.

Parents As Teachers offers links to community resources. Educators provide families with referrals to agencies to meet individual family needs.

Why is the program important to Harnett County?

- The program makes an impact on the families of Harnett County.

- Program staff is able to detect possible developmental delays in children and refer them to appropriate places while the window of opportunity remains open.

- Promote a healthy family structure.

- Increase parent knowledge of child development.

- More positive parent/child interaction and decreased child abuse/neglect in PAT families.

- Parents As Teachers parents are more involved in their child's school experiences.